Aksel Lund Svindal (born 26 December 1982) is a Norwegian former

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

alpine ski racer. Born in

Lørenskog is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality in Akershus in Viken (county), Viken Counties of Norway, county, Norway. A suburb of Oslo, it is part of the Oslo urban area and the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Romerike. The administrati ...

Akershus Akershus () is a traditional region and current electoral district in Norway, with Oslo as its main city and traditional capital. It is named after the Akershus Fortress in Oslo. From the middle ages to 1919, Akershus was a fief and main county ...

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

), an

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold medalist in super-G at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

and in downhill at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

, and a five-time

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined ( 2007 Åre, 2009 Val-d'Isère, 2011 Garmisch, and 2013 Schladming). With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships. With his successes many consider him the best Norwegian alpine skier ever. While the great Kjetil Andre Aamodt has been more successful at the Olympics, Svindal is by far the most successful on the World Cup circuit. In late-January 2019, he announced his retirement from alpine skiing following the 2019 Ski World Championships.

Career

During his career, Svindal won nine

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

medals, four

medals (two of them gold), two overall World Cup and nine discipline titles (in

downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

, and combined), and 36 World Cup races. Additionally, he won four medals at the World Junior Championships in 2002, including gold in combined. On 27 November

, during the first training run for the

Birds of Prey Birds of prey or predatory birds, also known as raptors, are hypercarnivorous bird species that actively hunt and feed on other vertebrates (mainly mammals, reptiles and other smaller birds). In addition to speed and strength, these predators ...

downhill race in Beaver Creek,

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

, Svindal crashed badly after landing a jump. He somersaulted into a safety fence and was taken to

Vail Vail is a home rule municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,835 in 2020. Home to Vail Ski Resort, the largest ski mountain in Colorado, the town is known for its hotels, dining, and for the numer ...

Valley Medical Center (now

Vail Health Hospital Vail Health Hospital is a regional hospital in Vail, Colorado, in Eagle County. Originally established as a small clinic in 1965, the hospital now has 56 beds. The hospital is a Level III trauma center. History Vail Health Hospital began as V ...

) with broken bones in his face and a six-inch (15 cm) laceration to his groin and abdominal area. Svindal missed the remainder of the 2008 season, and returned to World Cup racing in October

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. His first two victories following his return were a downhill and a super-G in Beaver Creek, on the same Birds of Prey course where he was injured the year before. 2010 Winter Olympics Aksel Lund Svindal in downhill

2010 Winter Olympics Aksel Lund Svindal in downhill

At the 2009 World Championships, Svindal won the gold in the super combined. Completing his comeback during the 2009 season, Svindal won his second overall World Cup over

Benjamin Raich Benjamin Raich (born 28 February 1978 in Arzl im Pitztal, Tyrol) is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. With 14 medals won at Winter Olympics and World Championships, 36 World Cup race victories (in ...

of Austria. Entering the last race of the season, a slalom at the World Cup finals in

Åre Åre () is a locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpen. 25% of the local eco ...

, Sweden, Svindal led Raich by just two points. They had won the two previous races (a downhill and giant slalom respectively), with Svindal leading but Raich was the favourite as a specialist in slalom. Both skiers went off course and did not finish the slalom, so the Norwegian became the overall World Cup winner. He also won his fourth discipline title, his second in super G. At the

on 15 February, Svindal won the silver medal in the

competition in Whistler, 0.07 seconds behind the winner, Didier Défago of Switzerland, and 0.02 seconds ahead of bronze medalist

Bode Miller Samuel Bode Miller ( ; born October 12, 1977) is an American former World Cup alpine ski racer. He is an Olympic and World Championship gold medalist, a two-time overall World Cup champion in 2005 and 2008, and the most successful male America ...

of the United States. Svindal's medal was Norway's hundredth silver medal at the

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, the most for any nation. Four days later on 19 February, Svindal won the

, his first-ever Olympic gold medal – ahead of Miller (+ 0.28 seconds) and

Andrew Weibrecht Andrew Weibrecht (born February 10, 1986) is a World Cup alpine ski racer and two-time Olympic medalist from the United States. Born in Lake Placid, New York, he grew up racing at nearby Whiteface Mountain. Weibrecht races in all five disciplin ...

(+ 0.31 seconds), both of the U.S. Svindal successfully defended his

world title A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in the super combined in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Garmish-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

, Germany. After an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, o ...

in October 2014, Svindal did not compete in World Cup events during the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

season. He did enter the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

in Colorado in February, and placed sixth in both the

and

events. After his season long injury, Svindal had a very strong start to the 2016 season. He managed seven world cup victories before he sustained a season-ending knee injury under tough conditions in

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbühel district (). Kitzbühel ...

, Austria. After a fairly good start to the 2016–2017 season including 1 World Cup win, for the third straight season he suffered a season ending/interrupting injury, and this time missed both the majority of the World Cup season and the 2017 World Alpine Ski Championships. He won another Olympic Gold in the downhill event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, becoming the oldest ever Alpine skiing gold medallist. In his final race, the

at the 2019 World Alpine Ski Championships in Åre in February of that year, Svindal finished second in a Norwegian one-two, being pipped to the gold by team-mate Kjetil Jansrud by a margin of two hundredths of a second.

Personal life

Svindal dated alpine racer

Julia Mancuso Marie Mancuso (born March 9, 1984) is a retired American World Cup alpine ski racer, Olympic gold medalist and podcast host. She won the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and was the silver medalist in both downhill and combined in 20 ...

of the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

for three years, until the couple split up in September 2013. In his spare time, he devotes himself to freeskiing, and has already appeared in several freeskiing film documentaries. One of his best friends is his teammate

Kjetil Jansrud Kjetil Jansrud (born 28 August 1985) is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion. He competed in all alpine disciplines apart from slalom, and his best event was the giant slalom where he has six World Cup podiums and a ...

World Cup results

Season titles

11 titles: (2 overall, 2

Downhill Downhill may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Downhill'' (1927 film), a British film by Alfred Hitchcock * ''Downhill'' (2014 film), a British comedy directed by James Rouse * ''Downhill'' (2016 film), a Chilean thriller directed by Patrici ...

, 5

Super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

, 1

Giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up t ...

, 1 Combined)

Season standings

Race victories

36 wins – (14 DH, 17 SG, 4 GS, 1 SC)

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

*
Aksel Lund Svindal
World Cup standings at the International Ski Federation * * *
Norwegian Ski Team
– alpine skiing – Aksel Lund Svindal – '
Head Skis
– teams – Aksel Lund Svindal * – ' {{DEFAULTSORT:Svindal, Aksel Lund 1982 births Living people People from Skedsmo People from Lørenskog Norwegian male alpine skiers Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic alpine skiers of Norway Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic medalists in alpine skiing Olympic gold medalists for Norway Olympic silver medalists for Norway Olympic bronze medalists for Norway FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Audi Sport TT Cup drivers Sportspeople from Viken (county) World Rallycross Championship drivers Norwegian racing drivers